BARC set to launch digital measurement services, to issue RFP soon

MUMBAI: BARC India has moved a step closer to providing audience measurement beyond television. Its request for information (RFI) for digital measurement, issued in December, has received an overwhelming response from 11 top-notch vendors from across the world.

In order to expedite the process and launch digital measurement services this year, BARC India will issue a request for proposal (RFP) soon. The partner for the venture will be announced in a couple of months.

With its foray into digital measurement, BARC India seeks to measure the total number of unduplicated viewers across all devices and platforms, measuring combined programme impressions or advertisements regardless of where and how content/ad is being consumed, through a single source panel.

Once the venture takes shape, BARC India will be the first to provide a TV+ digital viewership measurement service across the globe. With this, it will cover more than 50 per cent of media spends between TV and digital.

In order to make the service robust and accurate, BARC India will look at partnerships with publishers and content creators going forward.

“A lot of content today is being created for online consumption, but all these impressions are unaccounted for. With our digital measurement, we are looking to provide content creators and platform owners with insights into the consumption behaviour of viewers. We are happy with the response we have received from vendors globally,” said BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

BARC India is a joint industry body, set up in India in 2012, with the specific purpose of designing, commissioning, supervising and owning India’s TV audience measurement system.